Chained
by Sonikku2fast4u
Summary: After having a heated argument in front of Eggman over Speed vs Strength, Sonic and Knuckles end up being chained together in the most unlikely of places. Now they must learn to work together and defeat Eggman without butting heads...or tails.
1. Chapter 1

**AN:**_ Had this idea in my head for a while now, finally getting it out of my system. _

**Chained: Chapter 1**

Ah, Angel Island. No place is more peaceful, remote and historical on Mobius.

_*EXPLOSION*_

Well, almost.

"Get off of my island Eggman!" Knuckles shouted angrily at the heavy man in the hovercraft above. A slightly damaged robot that greatly resembled a giant spider laid embedded in the side of the cliff with it's curled legs twitching.

"Now why would I do that?" Eggman sneered as he pressed a button to jolt the spider back to life and ordered the robot another attack on the red echidna. Knuckles barely dodged getting jumped on by the mechanical arachnid. He landed on the robot's abdomen and gave it a few good poundings causing it thrash violently to get him off. One of the mechanical legs was able to swiftly brush Knuckles off, sending him flying across the area and sharply hit his back against a tree. The spider was on quick recovery and took advantage of this by spitting a long silver chain out towards Knuckles just before he hit the ground, the chain immediately whipped itself around the tree and Knuckles several times before finally getting to the end. Knuckles quickly snapped his eyes open to find he couldn't move his arms or legs, he was bound against the tree by the strong chain.

He struggled to use his strength to break the overlapping chain around him but there were too many overlaps, making it too thick and strong even for him.

"hahahahaha!' Eggman laughed victoriously. "Looks like your strength is no match for my creation's strong metal thread! Finish him off Clasp!"

The robot spider called Clasp crawled it's way towards the tree Knuckles was bound to. It's thousands of tiny red eyes seemed to glare at Knuckles. It raised a sharp leg just above Knuckle's forehead. He in turn did not show any fear towards the weapon it possessed.

"Go ahead, I dare you. You piece of-"

Before he could finish his sentence, a quick blue blur made it's way between them, startling the mechanical beast backwards and loosening the chain enough for Knuckles to slip out of them unharmed.

The blur took form behind them to reveal a blue hedgehog smugly ready for action.

"Sonic!" Eggman shouted again, "That blasted hedgehog! Always ruining my plans!"

"Good to see you too Egghead." Sonic exclaimed. "I see that you're inventions are as useless as ever." He teased.

Sonic got into his favorite fighting stance and was ready to dodge any attack if need be, when he suddenly got knocked hard upside the head from behind.

Sonic turned around surprised to see Knuckles the culprit of the blow and he did not look happy either.

"What?" he asked impatiently, rubbing the back of his head.

"What do you mean what?" Knuckles said frustrated. "I don't remember asking for your help! I was doing fine on my own!"

Sonic couldn't help but laugh out loud. "Really? Seeing as you were chained to that tree right there when I arrived." He pointed out.

"I was going to get out. I just needed the right moment. I didn't need your help. This is my fight!"

"Sure thing Knucklehead." Sonic remarked sarcastically "Of course you could get out with just your brute strength, it's worked before hasn't it?"

"Stop calling me that!" Knuckles shouted back. "And strength is the best way to win a fight. Unlike your stupid speed. Speed will get you no where; it's a waste of time to be running around like an idiot all day when you can just get the job done better by strength!"

"Oh yeah?" Sonic retorted. "Well, speed is way better than strength and I can prove it!"

"Oh really? Well let's see how well your speed can match this!" Knuckles raised his giant fist to strike Sonic once again but was interrupted by a loud raging voice laughing hysterically from above.

"Ahahahaha." Eggman continued, "You guys should see yourselves. Why fight me when you got eachother?" A spark lighted up in Eggman's head. He had an idea. An awful wonderful awful idea.

"Clasp!" He commanded the robot's attention. "Let's see how well these two can get along without me. Fire the ultimate bind!"

The robot then aimed and shot what looked like an explosive weapon out towards the two. Both Sonic and Knuckles turned around to run the opposite direction shortly duck and covering to the ground preparing for an explosion.

However, there was no explosion. Instead, the casing of the 'bomb' opened up to shoot out a long sticky chain that happened to be aimed at their exposed backsides.

Sonic and Knuckles simultaneously yelped feeling something hit the ends of their tails.

Quickly looking behind them, they found a heavy gold chain glued to the tips of their appendage. Both eyes followed the long chain to the end where it was bound to the others tail. Sonic and Knuckles immediately tried to get the sticky end of the chain off of their tails by pulling it off. But the glue was already set. Try as they might, the end of the chain was set like hot glue to paper. It wouldn't come off; After several failed attempts and pulling the chain to the point where it was starting to hurt, they looked up at one another with shock and disbelief.

They were stuck with each other by their tails and couldn't get free.


	2. Chapter 2

**Chained- Chapter 2.**

"Ahahahahaha!" Eggman laughed once again. "Looks like I won't be needed to make your lives miserable after all. I'll just be on my way with mygathering of flickies for my robots. Ta-ta!"

"Oh no you don't!" Sonic said taking off after the ascending hovercraft.

"SONIC STOP!" A rough voice from behind screamed. Sonic immediately stopped and took a look behind him to see Knuckles face first on the ground, covered in dirt and completely dazed from being dragged by his tail.

"uh… sorry Knuckles."

Knuckles, slowly got himself up and brushed himself off. He looked ticked off and Sonic prepared for impact.

"ARE YOU CRAZY SONIC!" He yelled at the top of his lungs. "HOW ON EARTH COULD YOU FORGET! ARE YOU _THAT_ ADD!"

"I said I was sorry." Sonic tried to reason with the steaming echidna but before he could get another word in Knuckles grabbed the chain and yanked itupwards hard, sending Sonic tumbling head over tail and falling to the ground.

"Ouch! Hey what was that for?" Sonic exclaimed still on the ground.

"That was to remind you of our current situation." Knuckles said through clenched teeth. "And don't you forget it again!"

"Ugh. Alright, alright I get it." Sonic remarked as he got himself off the ground.

Knuckles was breathing heavily from the rage, but it appeared he was calming down. Sonic stayed quiet for a bit. No point in upsetting him again.

Besides, that 'reminder' wasn't very pleasant.

Knuckles finally took a deep breath and sighed. "Well." He started. "What do we do now?"

"I was thinking we should go to Tails' place." Sonic suggested. "If anyone can fix this, it's him."

"Good idea. But I'm leading the way this time."

* * *

><p>"Can't we go faster?" Sonic complained for the 30th time to Knuckles.<p>

Knuckles groaned in annoyance. "No way. Knowing you you'd want to go full speed. I can't keep up with you that way. Besides, we're just about there."

"Good. I don't know how much longer I can take your slowness."

Knuckles rolled his eyes at the comment and made his way up to Tails' place. Once inside, they found him working on the Tornado. He couldn't see them though because he was underneath the plane.

"Hey Tails!" Sonic said loudly making the poor fox jump from underneath the plane.

"Oh, hey Sonic you scared me." He said as he got out from underneath.

"Knuckles is here too?" He said noticing the red echidna. He knew that Knuckles rarely left his island unless there was something wrong, and seeing as Sonic was there too. It had to be something not good.

"What is it? What's wrong?" he asked worriedly. "Did Eggman do something terrible?"

"Well… Kind of, but not exactly." Sonic answered motioning for Knuckles to turn around as he did the same.

Tails cocked his head in confusement as he saw both Sonic and Knuckles tails with a chain attached to both ends.

"Wha?" He said surprised. "How did this happen? Can't you get it off?"

"If we could've gotten it off, we wouldn't be here would we?" Knuckles stated dryly.

"Well." Tails started. "I'll see what I can do."

* * *

><p>"Are you sure this is safe Tails?" Sonic asked with concern.<p>

"It should be if I do it right." Tails said. "I am going to use these laser pens to try to melt the glue on the end of the chain off your tails at the same time.

Just try not to move so you won't get burned. Are you ready?"

Both Sonic and Knuckles gulped. Still not 100 percent sure of that answer.

"Just get it over with." Knuckles finally said.

Tails turned on the lasers pens, allowing them to warm up a bit. He aimed both ends of the pens on the tips of their tails where the chain was attached.

Is finger was now on the button and he put on his safety goggles to protect his eyes from the light that would beam from the lasers.

Knuckles looked away nervously, but Sonic was now sweating profusely thinking of the dire consequences if this went wrong. Tails finger was slowly

dropping towards the fire button. Sonic couldn't take it anymore.

"NO!" He shouted. "I cannot do this!"


	3. Chapter 3

**Chained- Chapter 3**

"Quit being a big baby Sonic. Tails didn't do it." Knuckles said to the cowering Sonic in the corner.

"This close..." He mumbled. "I was this close to losing my own tail…."

Knuckles ignored Sonic's rantings, trying to think of some other way to get this blasted chain off without Sonic making a scene. If only that argument hadn't started. If only Sonic wasn't so keen on speed and he on strength, he kind of wished that he or Sonic had some ability to be able to get the chain off.

"_Wait a second"_ he thought.

"Sonic! I have an idea."

* * *

><p>"So you want me to run full speed in the other direction while you hold on to this flag pole?" Sonic asked wanting to confirm that this is really what they are about to do.<p>

"Yes." Knuckles replied. "Go full speed, I should be able to hold on long enough for it to snap off."

"Ooook." He said not really convinced this would work.

"You ready?"

Knuckles got a good grip on the metal flag pole. Taking a deep breath.

"Ready."

Sonic walked till the chain was pulled straight. He then started to run, his legs becoming untraceable in a matter of seconds. Knuckles grunted a little as he felt his tail harshly being pulled straight. He was now, more than ever glad that it could do that. He used his strength to pull himself more towards the pole so his arms were bent & wouldn't be straight out. While he did have strength in his hands, it was his arms that were the strongest so it made more sense to use his arm strength for something like this.

Sonic on the other end felt like his tail was about to be ripped off. This was so uncomfortable. Running a little faster with each step, he felt himself moving forward a little which meant to him that it was working. His tail was starting to hurt now from the tension though so he wasn't sure how much longer he could take this, the sound of crunching metal was heard as Knuckles still held strong to the pole, which a part of was now bent towards them. Knuckles looked down to see the screws securing the flag pole to the ground flying off. But before he could even think to alert Sonic, the pole jolted up off the ground sending Sonic flying overhead shortly carrying Knuckles with him followed by a painful 'Umph' upon hitting the ground.

"Ugh" Sonic groaned. "That's the last time I listened to your ideas." Sonic got up and frowned when he saw the chain still attached to their now limp tails.

"I think my tail just got longer because of that" he added.

Knuckles scoffed. "Your tail? I don't even think my tail will go back to the way it was now." He admitted not even attempting to put it back to its normal form.

"So now what genius?" Sonic couldn't help but ask.

"You got a better idea?" Knuckles remarked sourly.

Sonic stayed quiet for a second. How in the world could this predicament be so hard to get out of? Normally any challenge Eggman threw at him was easily overlooked or fixed quickly. But Eggman must've outdone himself this time.

"Eggman" Sonic mumbled.

"What?"

"Eggman got us into this mess because we were arguing right? Well, what if we show him a little speed AND strength. We'll force him to take the chain off."

"I would love to beat the living daylights out of him for doing this." Knuckles said almost smiling at the thought,

"But I think you're forgetting something." He pointed to the chain once more.

"How are we going to fight if we're stuck together like this?"

"Easy" Sonic said. "We just gotta work together and practice at it."

They both winced at those words. The thought of literally working together like that wasn't really their idea of beating Eggman. But they both knew what had to be done in order to win.

"Fine." Knuckles sighed. "But I have a feeling this isn't going to be easy."


	4. Chapter 4

**Chained: Chapter 4**

"ARRRG!" Knuckles yelled in frustration. "Are you trying to kill me Sonic!"

"Sorry." Sonic replied sheepishly. "I didn't think that you'd get pulled into my quills if I tried to do a spin dash."

"Yeah well, next time warn me so I can spin _with_ you, not _into _you." He said wincing as he pulled a blue quill from his behind.

"This is such a bummer" Sonic said with a sigh. "Every time I do my attacks _YOU_ always get hurt."  
>"Yeah." Knuckles agreed. "Which is why I think we need to switch it up a bit."<p>

Knuckles pointed across the forest to the giant towering cliff at the edge.

"We're gonna climb that cliff using our abilities, and if we can BOTH make it to the top without getting hurt, then it's time to face Eggman."

Sonic gulped a bit, one false move going up that steep cliff and they would both be sent down to their doom.

"Fine"

* * *

><p>"Knuckles are you really going to <em>climb<em> that cliff?"

"Well yeah." he said like this wasn't anything new. "I can't run straight up the cliff like you, I have to use my knuckles to climb remember?"

"Yeah I know, but I have to be going pretty fast to keep gravity from kicking in. I don't know if you'll be able to stay by me." Sonic said with caution.

"As long as you don't go your full speed, I should be fine. Just run fast enough to keep momentum and leave the rest to me."

"Ok." Sonic said convinced "On three. One, two Three!"

Sonic and Knuckles both jumped onto the side of the cliff, Knuckles immediately latched on and began climbing as fast as he could while Sonic kicked the speed. The ground quickly went farther and farther below them as they were getting higher. Sonic started going too fast for Knuckles though as he was getting too far in front of him.

"Sonic! Slow down a bit!" Knuckles yelled from below still climbing, Sonic looked behind him to see if Knuckles was ok when his foot caught on a deep indent and he tripped falling face first into the cliff before gravity taking over and him falling fast to the ground below.

His fall was interrupted however by a hard yank on his tail. Sonic yelped before he opened his eyes to see the ground several feet below him, but he could feel that he was literally hanging by his tail. He looked up to Knuckles who had his teeth clenched and his hands buried deep within the cliff.

"Now what?" Sonic said swaying by his tail.

"Don't 'now what' me!" Knuckles said. "I just saved your life! Now figure a way to get back onto the cliff before my tail falls off!"

"How?" Sonic asked.

"Just do _something_!" Knuckles begged with desperation in his voice.

Sonic thought for a second before he started to use his body to swing side to side.

"What…are you doing?" Knuckles said feeling the motion Sonic was doing.

"Just trust me." Sonic said. "Be ready to climb again as soon as you feel the weight come off your tail."

Sonic swung backwards and forwards waiting just for the right moment. Forwards, backwards forwards, more and more height until, ah ha! Sonic turned so his feet his to the side of the cliff and he began running again, Knuckles was quick when he saw Sonic run past him and he started climbing again. Sonic was sure to run just enough to keep from falling this time, and Knuckles was a pretty quick climber, they were now side by side and before they knew it, they reached the top of the cliff without falling.

Knuckles breathed heavily from the exhaustion, he never climbed a cliff that fast in his life.

Sonic was fine, but boy did his tail hurt.  
>"Sonic, I think it's time to give that egghead a piece of our minds."<p>

"heh, I think your right Knuckles. Let's go show him what we're made of!"


End file.
